thesis
(ˈθiːsɪs, ˈθɛsɪs)
Pl. theses (ˈθiːsiːz).
[a. Gr. θέσις putting, placing; a proposition, affirmation, etc., f. root θε- of τι-θέ-ναι to put, place.]
I. In Prosody, etc.: opposed to arsis.
1. Originally and properly, according to ancient writers, The setting down of the foot or lowering of the hand in beating time, and hence (as marked by this) the stress or ictus; the stressed syllable of a foot in a verse; a stressed note in music.
| [1855 Weil & Benloew Théorie générale de l'accentuation latine 98. 1861 R. Westphal Fragm. der griech. Rhythmiker 98. 1880 P. Pierson Métrique Naturelle du Lang. 32.] 1864 Hadley Ess. (1873) 81 The name feet for rhythmic elements, arsis (raising of the foot), thesis (setting down of the foot), have primary reference to orchestic. 1891 Cent. Dict., Thesis... In musical rhythmics, a heavy accent, such as in beating time is marked by a down-beat. |
2. By later Latin writers (
e.g. Martianus Victorinus
a 400, Priscian
c 500) used for the lowering of the voice on an unstressed syllable, thus practically reversing the original meaning; hence in prevalent acceptation (from the time of Bentley, 1726): The unaccented or weak part of a foot in verse (classical or modern), or an unaccented note in music;
spec. in Old English prosody and in the prosody of other Germanic languages.
| 1398 Trevisa Barth. De P.R. xix. cxxxi. (1495) 941 Arsis is rerynge of voys and is the begynnyng of songe. Thesis is settynge and is the ende. [1726 Bentley Terence p. i.] 1830 J. Seager tr. Hermann's Metres i. ii. 4 After the example of Bentley, we call that time in which the ictus is, the arsis, and those times, which are without the ictus, the thesis... Other writers on metres, together with ancient musicians,..call that thesis which we call arsis, and that arsis, which we call thesis. 1844 [see anacrusis]. 1846 Keightley Notes Virg., Bucol. i. 47 (Fōrtūnātĕ sĕnēx, ērgō tŭă rūră mănēbūnt!) He [Wagner] adds, that the emphasis should therefore be on tua, and not on manebunt. But this was not possible to a Roman, for tua here (like mea ix. 4) is in the thesis of a dactyl. 1870 F. A. March Introd. Anglo-Saxon 147 The regular Germanic epic line has four..arses in each section, each of which may have a thesis or not. 1876 Kennedy Pub. Sch. Lat. Gram. §258 Each simple Foot has two parts, one of which is said to have the ictus upon it, and is called arsis..; the other part is called thesis. 1879 Ouseley in Grove Dict. Mus. I. 95/2 The terms arsis and thesis may be regarded as virtually obsolete, and are practically useless in these days. 1888 A. H. Tolman in Trans. Mod. Lang. Assoc. Amer. III. 20 Only one accented syllable, out of the first sixteen in this poem [sc. Beowulf], has a syllable expressed as its thesis or senkung. 1910 J. Schipper Hist. Eng. Versification 28 Syllables with this secondary accent are necessary in certain cases as links between the arsis and the thesis. 1938 A. Campbell Battle of Brunanburh 18 A dissyllabic second thesis seems not to be found in lines of type A. 1942 J. C. Pope Rhythm of Beowulf 49 We fill the down-beat or thesis of this measure with a rest. |
‖ 3. Mus. per arsin et thesin (
= ‘by raising and lowering’): used of a fugue, canon, etc. in which the subject or melody is inverted, so that the rising parts correspond to the falling ones in the original subject and
vice versâ: the same as
by inversion.
| 1597 Morley Introd. Mus. ii. 114 If therefore you make a Canon per arsin & thesin, without anie discorde in binding maner in it. 1706 Phillips (ed. Kersey) s.v. Arsis, A Point being inverted or turned, is said, To move per Arsin and Thesin, that is to say when a Point rises in one Part, and falls in another; or on the contrary, when it falls in one Part, and rises in another. 1879 [see arsis 3]. |
II. In
Logic,
Rhetoric, etc.
4. A proposition laid down or stated,
esp. as a theme to be discussed and proved, or to be maintained against attack (in
Logic sometimes as distinct from
hypothesis 2, in
Rhetoric from
antithesis 2); a statement, assertion, tenet.
| 1579 Digges Stratiot. a iv, The vulgare Thesis of the Earthes Stabilitie. 1600 W. Watson Decacordon Pref. (1602) A v b, By way of a Quodlibet or Thesis proposed. 1651 Life Father Sarpi (1676) 8 He was sent to dispute against the Theses that were then given in. 1697 tr. Burgersdicius his Logic ii. xxiii. 112 A Thesis, whose Truth is not known by the meer Signification of the Words only; but by the Judgment of the Senses, or some other way of Declaration. 1727–41 Chambers Cycl. s.v., The maintaining a thesis, is a great part of the exercise a student is to undergo for a degree. Ibid., Every proposition may be divided into thesis and hypothesis, thesis contains the thing affirmed or denied, and hypothesis the conditions of the affirmation or negation. Thus,..If a triangle and parallelogram have equal bases and altitudes (is the hypothesis), the first is half of the second, the thesis. 1833 Coleridge Table-t. 3 July, The style of Junius is a sort of metre, the law of which is a balance of thesis and antithesis. 1860 Collier Gt. Events Hist. vi. 182 [Luther] Shaping his belief on the subject of the indulgences into ninety-five theses or propositions. 1879 Farrar St. Paul II. 96 In the Epistle to the Romans he established the thesis that Jews and Gentiles were equally guilty. |
b. spec. distinguished from
hypothesis 1,
q.v. quots. 1620–
a 1647.
c. A theme for a school exercise, composition, or essay.
| a 1774 Tucker Lt. Nat. (1834) II. 624 Whether among the theses given to declaim upon, it might not be profitable sometimes to choose those wherein the boys will be heartily interested. 1786 Jefferson Writ. (1859) II. 42 On such a thesis, I never think the theme long. |
5. A dissertation to maintain and prove a thesis (in sense 4);
esp. one written or delivered by a candidate for a University degree.
| 1653 Munim. Univ. Glasgow (1854) II. 323 Theologicall theses. 1659 Owen Consid. Bibl. Polygl. 205 The Thesis prefering this or that translation above the originall. 1673 Ray Journ. Low C. 36 He makes Theses upon the Subject he intends to answer, which Theses are printed. 1741 Watts Improv. Mind i. xiii. §3 It is the business of the respondent to write a thesis..or short discourse on the question proposed. 1837 Lockhart Scott vi, Scott's thesis was, in fact, on the Title of the Pandects, ‘Concerning the disposal of the dead bodies of criminals’. 1864 Burton Scot Abr. I. v. 266 There was an instruction that each should write his name on his thesis. |
6. Comb.:
thesis-monger (see
monger1 2);
thesis-novel = roman à thèse s.v. roman n.4;
thesis-play, a play composed with the purpose of maintaining a thesis, a tendency-play; so
thesis-playwright.
| 1932 Essays & Stud. XVII. 75 The aimless burrowings of a *thesis-monger. 1959 Listener 13 Aug. 255/1 Subjects like the Henrician Reformation..have been far too much in the hands of thesis-mongers. |
| 1934 Webster, *Thesis novel. 1954 K. Tillotson Novels of Eighteen-Forties i. 117 Novelists who..avoided the thesis-novel. 1979 S. Weintraub London Yankees vii. 233 Elizabeth Robins..continued writing thesis-novels on euthanasia, prostitution, women's rights. |
| 1904 Edin. Rev. Oct. 299 The use of ‘*thesis play’ as a term of reproach is not without a certain justification. 1905 Daily Chron. 14 June 5/2 ‘L'Adversaire’ is one of those brilliantly specious thesis-plays with which M. Capus has been wont to astonish both the philosophic and dramatic worlds. |
| 1902 Edin. Rev. July 199 The conscious, deliberate *thesis-playwright was Dumas fils. |